Reasons

Chapter 16

Rylie's POV

Anne greeted us at the door and hugged me first. "Rylie, I have missed seeing you around here," she said, smiling at me.

I return her hug and murmur, "I have missed coming by. I am sorry I haven't been around here as often in the last few weeks like I was before. Family drama and my brother is in town."

Harry raises a brow and pulls me aside. "You didn't mention you had a brother," he said, half smiling.

I roll my eyes and nudge him. "You never asked about my family," I reply, shrugging.

A frown slips onto Harry's face and he squints his eyes. "I haven't?" he says slowly.

I just shake my head and take his hand. "It's okay," I tell him softly. I reach up and kiss his cheek. "Let's go and help your mom."

As soon as we were back in the kitchen, Gemma runs over. "Rylie!" she exclaims, throwing her arms around me. "I didn't expect you to agree to come. I wasn't even sure you were going to go see Harry outside when he called."

I laugh and pull away after a minute. "Of course I would. He is my...boyfriend," I hesitantly say. Harry has addressed himself as my boyfriend plenty of times when I was around other guys. I just wasn't sure if he wanted his family to know as well. He doesn't object it, so I take it as a good sign.

Anne looks up from her spot in the kitchen and raises a brow. She doesn't ask any questions, though. She just picks up the meal that she had just finished and brings it over to the table.

I take a seat beside Harry and he puts his arm over my shoulders. I wasn't used to him being so affectionate, but I didn't mind. We filled up our plates and began to eat.

I swallowed before I asked, "So how was the beach?"

"It was good," Harry says simply. He looks over at Gemma, who had her mouth open to say something.

Gemma chimes in, "Yeah...good. We went to the best club ever."

I raise my brow and turned to look at Harry. "'We'? Who is this "we" Harry?" I ask, scowling.

Harry opens his mouth to say something, but then closes it. He doesn't say anything for a few moments, so I begin to get up. He reaches out and grabs my wrist.

"Wait, Rylie don't leave. I just don't want to talk about it here," he pleads.

I bit the inside of my cheek and weighed my options. I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. "Fine, but after supper we are talking," I say simply. I slowly sit back down, but when Harry puts his arm around my shoulders again, I just shrug him away.

The rest of the meal was quiet with thick tension all around the room. Anne excuses herself early and honestly I don't blame her. Gemma leaves after she eats to go and call Will. Only Harry and I were left at the table.

"Can I explain?" Harry finally mutters.

"Please, do," I grumble and turn to stare him down. He shifts in his seat.

Sighing, Harry begins, "I went to the club only one night with them. That was the night I said we went out to get groceries. Gemma and Will were going to drink and I needed to go so that I could drive them home. I didn't even have any fun Rylie."

I almost caved and forgave him. I reminded myself that he lied to me, which gave me confidence to not bow out.

"Then tell me Harry, why did you lie? I would have understood if you would have told me that night instead of now. After Gemma informed me about the clubs," I snap.